


Sealed with a Kiss

by SpraceJunkie



Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: Jack is from Santa Fe obvi, Long Distance Relationship, M/M, Modern AU, idk why I'm so convinced Crutchie needs to be from Arizona i just am, uhhh, yeah - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-06-30 22:28:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15760989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpraceJunkie/pseuds/SpraceJunkie
Summary: This story is Byrd tested and Byrd approved (meaning Byrd said they though it was cute).A LDR story wherein Crutchie finds a way to give Jack morning kisses from 500 miles away anyway.





	Sealed with a Kiss

Crutchie’s makeup routine hadn’t really changed all that much since he’d started doing makeup every day in college.

Eyebrows, eyeliner, eyelids, eyelashes. Concealer, foundation, contour if he felt like dealing with that drama. Cheeks, lips. Done.

Depending on how fancy he got, it could take anywhere from ten minutes to an hour. Normally, it was around twenty minutes.

He wasn’t sure exactly when it had expanded to include a morning Skype date regularly, but he did know the first couple weren’t planned.

Jack lived almost ten hours away. He was an artist, somewhat of a morning person, and he often called Crutchie in the morning before he left for work, especially when they hadn’t been able to talk the night before.

They’d met online, through a mutual friend, and even though they’d only met face to face once, Crutchie knew their relationship was good.

Jack was funny, sweet, caring and wonderful.

“-and so she goes, no sir, I didn’t say that, and like…I heard her. She clearly said it.” He was also content to chat away from his bed in Santa Fe while Crutchie did his makeup five hundred miles away.

“Blue or purple?” Jack tilted his head on screen, looking at the eyeshadow pallet he was holding up.

“What’s your lip color going to be?”

“Dark nude.”

“Purple.”

“Cool.” Jack watched Crutchie finish his eyes before he resumed his story about the lady at the gallery he worked at who’d tried to ask him out and promptly claimed it hadn’t happened.

“She also called me sir. Which was odd.”

“Mm.”

“Yeah. It was wild.” Jack was lying down in bed, his computer evidently open next to him, propped up on one hand. “And I didn’t even get paid overtime.”

“Did you work overtime?”

“Nah. Just dealt with the emotional turmoil of being asked out and promptly being told it never happened. Like two minutes later.”

“You deserve a raise.”

“I know, right?” Jack smiled at him. “So do you.”

“For what?”

“Dealing with eight white women a week named Helen who all tell you stories about their twelve year old daughters who may or may not be the same person.” Crutchie laughed, switching brushes to finish blending his foundation. “Makeup is like…insane.”

“How so?”

“It starts out looking so bad, and then you touch it with a fancy paintbrush, pretty much, and all the sudden it’s perfect.” Crutchie laughed again.

“When you come up, bring your paintbrushes and I’ll see how good they work on my face.”

“I don’t think most of my brushes are soft enough to go on your face. Most of them make noise when I touch them.”

“Have you cleaned them?”

“When they’re new I take good care of them, but after a while I kinda give up.” Jack watched quietly for another second. “How long to makeup brushes last?”

“Well, it depends. Some of these I’ve had for years. I usually replace eye brushes every few months ‘cause I got a sty once and it was not fun. And I clean them every other week really well, and I use this fancy bacteria spray stuff after I wipe them off every day, so they don’t get infested.”

“Hmm. Sometimes I use warm water or turpentine if my brushes get too bad.” 

“I’ll bet you go through paint faster than I go through makeup.”

“You know that Dril tweet with candles? That’s me with paint.” Jack grinned, slightly less sleepy than he had been at the beginning of the call. “And I get new brushes probably every six months, and like, individual new ones when I kill and old one.”

“I’ll get you fancy brushes for your birthday.”

“You know fancy brushes are the reason I have a grudge against cats?”

“I’ll get you crappy but pretty brushes for your birthday.” Crutchie grinned at the perfect timing of his cat jumping up to investigate Crutchie’s computer on his vanity. “Hey baby girl, who’s a pretty girl, mmhmm, this nasty man doesn’t like you because you’re a cat, but I still love you.”

“Hey, fatso.” The cat responded to Jack’s voice, looking at the screen and purring while Crutchie pet her. “Sup?”

“She says plotting the demise against cat haters all across the world.”

“I’m on the dogs’ side, Fluffernutter.” Crutchie kissed her head and set her on the floor to finish his makeup.

“Shouldn’t you get out of bed?”

“Eh, I don’t have to be at work for an hour and my morning routine takes twenty minutes including the shower. And I live five minutes away from the gallery. So I have like a half hour before I have to get up.” Crutchie shook his head.

“Your morning routine is crazy.”

“Shower, featuring hair and body wash. Ten minutes in total. Getting dressed, five minutes, making a bagel, two minutes, eating the bagel, on the way to work, since I usually walk. About twenty minutes.”

“I don’t even shower in the mornings and my routine is twice as long as yours.”

“That’s just ‘cause you’re extra.”

“Extra hot.” Jack laughed.

“I mean yeah, but also just extra in general.”

“Maybe so.” Crutchie finished his makeup with lipstick, kissing a tissue to blot it and setting the tissue aside. “Unlike some people, I have to leave more than five minutes before work, so I have to go. Love you.”

“Love you too.” Jack blew a kiss at the camera. “Four months, two weeks, six days.”

“Do you calculate that before you call me every day?”

“You betcha.”

“It’s getting closer.”

“That’s how time works, generally speaking.” Crutchie laughed one last time.

“Bye, Jacky.”

“See ya later, sunshine.”

Jack’s face froze on Crutchie’s screen in one last smile and wave before it went back to showing his list of Skype contacts.

Crutchie closed his laptop and moved it aside, checking his makeup once more in the mirror before carefully writing on his lipstick blot kiss, folding it, and setting it in the top drawer of his vanity.

Jack called almost every morning from the same position in bed, propped up on one hand.

Sometimes he was more awake; usually when that happened he was covered in paint and in the room he used as his studio.

Most of the time he’d obviously just woken up and called directly from bed without getting up at all first.

Once in a while he didn’t call, instead sending a text with a quick explanation and usually at least fifteen emojis.

Every morning without fail, Crutchie kissed a tissue, wrote on it, and set it aside in his top drawer.

The first time they’d met face to face, Crutchie had come to Santa Fe for a week in March, and they’d practically never left Jack’s apartment. Once they’d visited the gallery where he worked, once they’d gone out for dinner, and they’d hung out with Jack’s friends a once or twice, but mostly they’d just stayed in. Jack was an excellent cook, and they’d been together for almost a year without being able to touch each other, and his apartment was cozy and wonderful.

But Jack was coming to Phoenix in four and a half months, for two entire weeks, and while Crutchie was sure he’d be perfectly happy to spend plenty of time just the two of them holed up in Crutchie’s apartment, he also wanted to show Jack _his_ city.

And his family wanted to meet Jack so bad that both of his sisters were coming to his mom’s house for a week during Jack’s visit, so that was at least two days where they wouldn’t be alone.

Every day Jack either said the countdown on a Skype call or texted it to Crutchie, reminding them both that they were getting closer and closer to seeing each other again.

**Jack:** Hey babe

**Jack:** guess what?

**Crutchie:** What?

**Jack:** two hours and i get to kiss u

**Jack:** also airports suck and i kinda wish a drove except i hate driving so not really

**Jack:** but now i have to shut off my phone so i dont cause a plane crash bye love see you soon!!!! very soon!!!!

**Crutchie:** Love you! Don’t die pls

**Jack:** baggage claim 4

Just like the first time they’d met in person, it was a shock.

Computer screens could only communicate so much.

Jack was taller than Crutchie expected, which he remembered thinking last time, too, and there were little details that got lost from webcam to screen, like a few freckles and acne scars.

Crutchie didn’t have long to ponder all the little differences, since as soon as Jack saw him and he saw Jack he was wrapped in a tight hug.

“Hi, love.” Jack whispered into his hair.

“Hi.” Jack let go just enough to lean back and look at Crutchie’s face.

“I think my laptop’s saturation is off because last time I was surprised by how bright your hair was and it hit me this time too.”

“Wasn’t my hair blue when I came?”

“Blue shoulder length braids, yeah.” Jack ran his hand gently through the long braids down Crutchie’s back. “These are a lot longer.”

“And pinker.”

“And yellower. I knew about the colors but I never really processed how long your hair is now.”

“Yours is long, too. And bad.” Jack grinned.

“I was hoping for a Crutchie Morris haircut at some point during these two weeks.”

“Sooner rather than later.” Crutchie went up on his tiptoes on his good leg, unwilling to wait to kiss Jack any longer. “I only paid to park for an hour, and I’ve been here for a while, so we should go.”

It didn’t take much longer that absolutely necessary to get inside Crutchie’s apartment before Jack was kissing him again, wrapping him in another tight hug and pressing as close as he could physically get.

“God, I missed you.”

“I’m not God.”

“Might as well be.” Jack kissed him again. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

The two weeks flew by, far too quickly for Crutchie’s liking.

He got to wake up next to Jack, share sleepy morning kisses and cuddles. He cut Jack’s hair, Jack let him do his makeup once, they went on real dates to eat together and came home to tumble into bed together. They walked around museums, Jack pointing out all kinds of things nobody had a right to know about random paintings and artists, and met Crutchie’s sisters and mom, who, after an intense afternoon that was fun to watch but definitely not fun to go through for Jack, decided they approved of him.

Jack watched him do his makeup every morning, like was normal, only now he was sitting up on Crutchie’s bed watching him at his vanity. Sometimes he pulled out one of his sketchbooks and drew Crutchie, usually the perspective he had of Crutchie’s back and bits of his face in the mirror.

Jack cooked for him, insisting he wanted to since he wouldn’t get to again probably for a pretty long time.

And all too soon they were back at the airport.

“I’ll call you as soon as I get home.” Jack promised.

“I have a present for you.”

“Hmm?” Crutchie pulled his littler wrapped package out of his own bag and passed it to Jack.

“Don’t open it until tomorrow morning.”

“Why?”

“Just wait, you’ll see.” Crutchie kissed Jack one last time before he had to go through security, and watched him go.

Jack got home three hours later, kind of still reeling from an absolutely wonderful two weeks with his absolutely wonderful boyfriend.

He had a small, shiny, soft package to open in the morning, and an apartment he was sure would smell weird when he opened the door, and a job to get back to in the morning, not to mention a few commissions he was supposed to have done in a week or so that he had started but not finished.

Despite the weird smell, he passed out on top of his covers.

He would have forgotten to open his present in the morning in his rush to get ready in the morning, except for the text he got from Crutchie about it.

It was wrapped in shiny gold paper, and Crutchie’s text had told him to be careful opening it, so he pulled back the tape and unfolded the paper into the square it had started as.

At first he was confused by the pile of soft white stuff inside the paper, but when he picked it up, he realized it was a tissue, and when he unfolded the tissue, he found a little lipstick kiss in the center, with a date carefully printed on the corner with a little heart.

He picked up the whole pile, and a little notecard fell out.

_Morning kisses for when I’m not there to give them to you. Un-mailable, must be delivered in person, so make sure we see each other again before you run out_.

_(also because I know you, Jack Kelly, please don’t put them in/near your mouth, some of them are really old and I definitely had a cold for at least a few of them)_

Jack sent a picture of the first kiss he’d opened to Crutchie, smiling.

**Jack:** a beautiful addition to my morning routine

**Jack:** this isnt ur way of kicking me off morning skype calls is it?

**Crutchie:** No silly I just thought it was cute

**Jack:** its very cute. just like u  <3

**Crutchie:** I love you Jacky. Have a good day love

**Author's Note:**

> Hey hey hey I'm Asper, I'm gay, and I write too much fanfiction.
> 
> Please leave a comment if you enjoyed (or hated) (or felt anything at all for) this story, they really make my day!
> 
> Hmu on Tumblr @enby-crutchie!


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